The Damage (David Blake 2)

by Howard Linskey

  ‘Is there a fucking point to this?’

  ‘My point is you fucked up.’

  ‘Did I?’ and he shook his head, ‘what the fuck are you talking about?’

  ‘Yeah. I knew it was you the moment I saw the arresting officer on the TV news this morning, DI Stephen Connor.’

  ‘What about him?’

  ‘Connor has been on your father’s payroll for years. Don’t bother to deny it. Everyone in our world knows you own the guy. He didn’t make a move in Glasgow without your dad’s say-so and when he did move it was only to lock up the guys your father told him to.’

  ‘So fucking what?’

  ‘Getting rid of McGregor wasn’t enough of a win for you was it? So Stephen Connor got to arrest Scotland’s most wanted, when everyone knows he couldn’t catch syphilis. Couldn’t resist it, could you? You had to give your dog a bone.’

  Gladwell looked like he couldn’t even be bothered to argue with me, ‘so what are you saying?’

  ‘I’m saying that, all the while you’ve been bullshitting me about not wanting to kill anyone any more, you were setting up Leon Cassidy to take the fall for five murders you ordered, four of which were just random civilians used to cover your tracks for the real hit. You took out McGregor and no one batted an eye lid because they didn’t realise it was you, but I did, this morning, the moment they gave the microphone to your bitch Connor. And it reminded me of another little case in Glasgow about two years ago. I’m sure you remember it. Two guys came up from London to try and take over a club and deal some drugs in your backyard. Unsurprisingly they ended up dead, shot in their car when they parked up on wasteland, for a meeting with a local crime lord, or so the story goes, but it wasn’t close range, was it? No shotguns or semi-automatics like you’d expect. No, these guys were both shot with a rifle from distance, by a professional, someone good, who knew what he was doing, someone who had been hired to remove the competition. You’ve done it before Alan. I should have made the connection before now but I didn’t. I made it this morning though. So how long before SOCA works it out and comes after you?’

  ‘Is that your excuse for pulling out of this Edinburgh thing? Not got the balls to take on SOCA?’

  ‘No,’ I told him, ‘I’m pulling out, but not because of that.’

  ‘Why then?’

  ‘Because I am not going to send my men up north so you can carve them up.’

  ‘Fuck are you talking about?’ I knew I was going out on a limb here.

  ‘A man who can kill four innocent civilians to get at one copper isn’t going to make peace with the guy who killed his brother. You know it’s funny,’ I said, ‘I’ve heard a lot about you over the years. You’re supposed to be a hard and ruthless man. A man to be feared, and yet when it comes down to it you can’t even look me in the eye and admit it.’

  ‘Admit what?’

  ‘That it’s you that’s coming after me. You’re the one behind it all, pulling the strings, ordering the hits. Your dad would have looked Bobby in the eye and declared war but you, you hide behind these talks like a bairn behind his mother’s apron strings.’ Alan Gladwell was looking at me like he couldn’t quite comprehend what he was hearing, but I wasn’t finished yet. ‘I killed your brother, carved him up with a machete if you want to know, while he screamed for his life, and you’re down here doing deals with me one day, then shooting my men in the back the next. What kind of spineless cunt does that? Your father would be disgusted. Shooting civilians in the street and gunning down men in bars, then pretending you know nothing about it? Take some responsibility for your actions, man, admit it and come at me in the open if you’ve got a pair.’ I stopped for a moment and watched him absorb my words. I’d given him a lot to think about and some of it would have hurt, not least the bit about his brother and his father. If he wasn’t looking to kill me already he would after today, that was for sure. If I’d read this situation wrong I’d just made myself another powerful enemy.

  ‘Come on then,’ I urged him, ‘why don’t you just say it like it is.’ I’d barely finished my sentence when he lunged for me with a roar, hurling himself across the table towards me.

  ‘Come here!’ he screamed, ‘come here, you bastard!’ Amrein’s bodyguards were already in between us and Gladwell’s men were trying to pull him back. My lads were steaming in between us too and fists were flying. ‘I’ll fucking murder you! I’ll put you in a fucking wheelchair just like your brother!’ He was being dragged away by Fallon and his men, but he was still shouting. Amrein was trying to get a word in but Gladwell was having none of that. ‘Fuck you Amrein, you fucking cunt!’ then he started jabbing his finger at me as Fallon and two of his lads bundled him towards the exit door. ‘There’s contracts out on you,’ his eyes were bulging, he was losing it now, ‘on all of you! You’re all fucking dead! Every hit man in the country knows your names and I don’t care what it costs me! You’re all fucking dead!’

  With one last heave, Fallon and Gladwell’s boys managed to manoeuvre Alan Gladwell out through the fire exit door and into the courtyard at the back of the hotel.

  Amrein looked shattered.

  ‘Thanks for setting this up, Amrein,’ I told him sarcastically, ‘it’s been useful.’

  Kinane walked up to me. He looked flushed, and I’d noticed he landed a couple of tasty blows on Gladwell’s boys but he hadn’t managed to get near Fallon, who had shown a cooler head than I expected by bundling his boss out of the way before he did something he could be arrested for.

  ‘How did you know it was him?’ asked Kinane.

  ‘I didn’t,’ I admitted, ‘but I do now.’

  35

  .......................

  The days following our meeting with Alan Gladwell were chaotic in the extreme. Everything went wrong. The local Police started acting on tip-offs they would normally have ignored, meaning a couple of our dealers were arrested on the outskirts of the city and one of our pubs was closed down due to illegal gambling activities, because a few guys were playing cards in there for money. Meanwhile someone tried to set fire to one of our clubs and a bomb threat was sent to the hotel we were about to open, which resulted in our entire staff being evacuated during their training for opening night. There was barely a corner of our business that did not experience some form of assault, harassment or legal sanction and I could have traced just about all of them back to Alan Gladwell or Ron Haydon MP and his tame Chief Constable. Even Maggot was arrested and threatened with a charge of living off immoral earnings. He got quite upset about that and foolishly started threatening to name the names of Police officers who had visited the Sports Injury clinic in the past, until one of the detectives interviewing him gave him a slap. When Kinane found out he’d been so stupid he gave him another one, so Maggot went round for days sporting matching black eyes. He looked like a panda.

  I took all of that on the chin because, right in the middle of it all, Our young’un finally opened his eyes. There was no way he was ever going to walk again, but at least he was alive and there was no brain damage. I can’t tell you how relieved that made me feel. Danny was drifting in and out of consciousness while I was there and not really making much sense. I just told him everything was going to be okay and watched as he went back to sleep. I had no idea how I was going to be able to tell him he was paralysed.

  That afternoon I was sitting with Palmer in my office in the Cauldron, getting updates on the latest outrages committed against our firm, when Kinane burst in.

  ‘Our Kevin’s been robbed,’ he said, and he looked as angry as I’d ever seen him. I said nothing. I just let him speak, ‘he was taking the stash down to Sunnydale. He’d barely got into the place when they jumped him; vans and cars pulling out to block him, shotguns and Uzis waved at him. They got him out of the car, smacked him about and drove off with it. We found it later, burned out, the stash missing.’

  Kinane didn’t waste any words.

  ‘Braddock,’ I said.

  ‘Has to be! W
ho else knew our Kevin was coming down with the stash? We vary the timings and the vehicles but we have to let him know we’re coming, so he’s ready to unload. We give him the make and model of the car so his scouts can look out for it. A rival firm wouldn’t have any of that information and how could they just sit there in their cars, tooled up like that, without Braddock’s crew knowing about it and scaring them off? They know everything going on in that estate. It was him alright.’

  ‘Is Kevin okay?’ I was buying time with my question, trying to work out what to do.

  ‘He’s lost his front teeth,’ Kinane said wearily, ‘got a smack in the face with an Uzi.’ In Kinane’s world this was the equivalent of a grazed knee, ‘he’ll live, but he wants payback.’

  ‘I’m sure he does,’ I assured him, ‘and I know you do too.’

  ‘Well then,’ he urged me, ‘give me the go-ahead. Let me sort this cunt out once and for all.’

  ‘No,’ I said.

  ‘What? Are you serious? He’s just stolen the whole fucking consignment! You know how much that’s worth. This is declaring war on you. And on us. After we went in there and you warned him, he goes and does this. He doesn’t give a fuck about us. If we don’t fix this then we are going to look like total mugs. Who else is going to steal from us if we let this go unpunished? They’ll be lining up to take us on!’

  Every word Kinane said was true but I couldn’t go to war on two fronts right now, not with Danny in hospital and Gladwell’s contract killers trying to take us all out.

  ‘Here’s what I want to happen,’ I told him. ‘Palmer is going to talk to Braddock. He is going to tell him I am furious that the drugs have been lifted from under Braddock’s nose and he has to retrieve them and kill the bastards who’ve done it.’

  ‘But he’s fucking done it!’ Kinane was bawling at me now.

  ‘I know that, Joe. But don’t you think Braddock has got his boys on full alert right now? He’ll have them all pumped up from robbing your lad and now they’re dug in waiting for us to race down there like General Custer and the Seventh Cavalry. If we do that it will be a bloodbath on both sides. It’s not worth it.’

  ‘Then what are we going to do?’

  ‘We throw the ball back into his court, we wait to see what he does, and we bide our time. We’re already at war with the Gladwells, I don’t want a war with Braddock’s crew at the same time. So Palmer will tell Braddock there’ll be no more drugs until the last consignment is recovered.’

  ‘They’ve got enough to last them a month,’ Kinane reminded me.

  ‘And right now they are living large and spending money they haven’t earned yet. When the drugs run out they’ll feel it.’

  Kinane was shaking his head, ‘I don’t believe this. I don’t believe what I’m hearing. I’ve never even questioned you before…’ he was talking to me, but he suddenly switched his attention to Palmer, ‘…you can’t tell me you agree?’

  This was a tricky moment. If Palmer agreed with Kinane I was pretty much finished. If I was lucky, the mutiny would be bloodless.

  There was a long silence from my head of security. ‘Well?’ demanded Kinane.

  ‘I think he’s right,’ he said, and for a moment I didn’t know which one of us he meant, ‘we can’t go charging in there while they are expecting it. Let them drop their guard, then act.’

  ‘Jesus Christ!’ shouted Kinane. ‘I would have expected better from you!’ he told Palmer, then he stormed out of the room.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said.

  ‘I told Joe you were right,’ Palmer said, ‘but I’m not sure you are. This waiting for the drugs to run out, it’s a dangerous policy right now.’

  I knew what he meant. Braddock would probably know we were at war with the Gladwells and had only acted now because he thought we were preoccupied with them. Once I’d let the drugs run out on his estate, Braddock’s obvious next move would be to buy from Gladwell, giving our enemy a toe-hold in our city. It was the nightmare scenario for all of us. I just hoped he wasn’t bright enough to spot it.

  *

  Sharp and I were back in the apartment because we didn’t want to be seen together in public. ‘What have you got for me?’ I demanded.

  He shook his head, ‘Nothing.’

  ‘That’s not good enough Sharp. I told you…’

  ‘Believe me, I am trying everything I can,’ he snapped. ‘I’m speaking to too many people on this one and sooner or later he is going to know there’s a cop from your neck of the woods asking questions about him and then I’m a fucking dead man.’

  ‘So you’ve spoken to a bunch of villains, all the bent coppers you know and even the honest ones and you’ve found nothing I can attack him with? I don’t believe it. For a gangster, he’s squeaky clean.’

  ‘I’m telling you that’s how it is. The guy just runs his crew, nowt else. He sells drugs but he doesn’t do them, his men respect him, even the hardest ones like that Fallon do what he tells them to because he has things tight, the money keeps rolling in and they all get paid on time. He never goes anywhere without a few of his crew around him so a hit is out of the question. When he’s at home he stays in with his missus, who he’s known ever since they were at school together, and his kids.’

  ‘What about a mistress, girlfriend, boyfriend even?’

  ‘I thought of that too. I was hoping there’d be a bird somewhere, or at least some hooker he shags when he’s bored, but there’s no one. He’s with his crew all day then it’s back to the big house, set back from the road, CCTV everywhere and men watching over him. I guess he’s learned from his brother’s mistakes.’

  I didn’t say anything for a moment.

  ‘What do you want me to do?’ he asked.

  ‘Get back out there, keep looking, there must be something.’

  He looked like he was about to start crying, ‘please, you don’t know what you’re asking me to do.’

  ‘Yes I do,’ I assured him, ‘I need you to do this. It’s important.’

  He put his hands up to his head and pressed them hard against his skull like he was trying to stop his head from exploding, then he said, ‘you don’t get it, do you. You are going to get me killed.’

  ‘In your game that’s an occupational hazard, Sharp. Now get back out there.’

  ‘Christ man…’

  ‘Gladwell knows everything about us. He knows where I go, who I see and where I shack up when I’m over here. We’ve got nothing on his crew that I can use against him. I want something on Gladwell and I want it quick. Find me a weakness. Because if I don’t get one his crew will keep picking us off one by one until there’s nobody left, and you needn’t think you’re immune. If you don’t deliver, I’ll make sure he hears you are part of my outfit. You got that?’

  ‘Yeah, course,’ his head was bowed now. He looked terrified, but I couldn’t tell who he was more frightened of; me or Alan Gladwell.

  ‘Good, because you know something?’

  ‘What?’ he looked up at me then.

  ‘You are on the right side, believe me. He might have three times as many men, but he’s stupid. We are going to win and, when we do, I won’t forget your part in it. You’ll be well looked after.’

  Sharp nodded, ‘Yeah, cheers,’ he mumbled, but he obviously didn’t believe a word of it. I’m not sure I believed it myself.

  36

  .......................

  It was getting dark when I walked out onto the roof of the Cauldron, which was turning into a second office for me. I could talk to people without fear of being overheard. I could smoke up here and clear my head. Palmer was out there already, gazing out at the city. ‘What is it Palmer?’ I asked him, even though I had a pretty good idea.

  He turned to face me. ‘How do you mean?’

  ‘You’ve had a face like a smacked arse for days now,’ I told him, ‘so out with it. What’s on your mind?’

  ‘You really want to know?’ he asked.

  ‘I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t.�
�

  He took a drag on his cigarette to fortify himself then said, ‘I keep thinking about what we did to that guy,’ he wasn’t looking me in the eye. ‘Him shooting Danny gave you every right to finish him but what we did?’ He took another draw on his cigarette while he was choosing his words and said, ‘it wasn’t right, leaving him like that. We should have killed him. What we did wasn’t right,’ he repeated. Palmer turned away from me. He was leaning forward, head bent, elbows resting on the railing.

  ‘It wasn’t just spite,’ I told the back of his head, ‘what I did to that guy wasn’t only revenge for my brother, though I’ll admit that was a big part of it.’ I stood next to him and we looked out over the rooftops together.

  ‘I wanted him to suffer, really suffer, but that wasn’t the only reason.’ He looked at me doubtfully. ‘Kinane will leak the story. Don’t worry, he isn’t going to be telling anyone who was involved, but he will let the word get out that the man who shot my brother died in the worst way imaginable, that we chained a man up and walled him in while he was still breathing. That way, the next time anyone even dreams of coming up against us, they’ll think again.’

  ‘Reckon it’ll work?’

  ‘How many times have you heard the story about Joe taking that gangster ten miles out into the North Sea on a fishing boat and chucking him overboard?’ I asked.

  ‘A few times,’ he admitted.

  ‘What did you think when you heard that?’

  ‘That I was glad it wasn’t me,’ he admitted.

  ‘Exactly. The same goes for the one about Alan Gladwell cutting that bloke’s cock off. Well, now there’s a new story doing the rounds that will make people realise we don’t fuck about down here. Would you come up against us if you heard that death is the least of it?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ he said, ‘truthfully, I don’t.’ I had never even seen Palmer looking tired before now but tonight he looked all-in.

  ‘Okay,’ I said, ‘tomorrow you go down there with a JCB or a bulldozer, whatever you can get your hands on at short notice. Take a couple of Kinane’s lads with you to be on the safe side, make sure they have their shotguns. If the guy’s as dangerous as you say he is, I want no fuck-ups.’